The Threshold
by Peach Wookiee
Summary: One-shot. As Ace slips away from this world, Batman reflects on her last words: "Could you stay with me? I'm scared." Set during the events Amanda Waller describes to Terry McGinnis in the Justice League Unlimited episode, "Epilogue."


The Threshold

_ Hello, fans of the DC Animated Universe. This is my first foray into this world, despite having watched it since the age of twelve. This story is a dialogue, written from the point of view of my favorite fully human male member of the Justice League, Batman. This story is written during the events that Amanda Waller discusses with Terry McGinnis in "Epilogue." If there is a moment that truly showcases Batman's/Bruce Wayne's humanity, it is that moment when he comforts the dying Ace rather than attempt to kill her._

_**Disclaimer:**__ Batman and the DCAU are owned by Warner Brothers and DC. The Batman I hear in my head is the magnificent Kevin Conroy. Thank you, Kevin, for giving Bruce/ Batman so much humanity in the years you have played him. Thank you also to Paul Dini and Bruce Timm for giving me such a lush universe to become lost in. _

"Could you stay with me? I'm scared." Those words are the echoes of the child that I was, and children that I've cared for. I am well-known throughout Gotham City as a philanthropist, jet-setter and multibillionaire, but I am also well-known as a vigilante, a crime-fighter and a hero. I am Bruce Wayne and I am Batman. I was a boy who lost my entire life and somehow, I found a way to remake it.

B

I was the one who said the words first. It was the night after my parents died. Their bodies lay in some funeral home, being prepared for when I'd have to say goodbye. The home where I'd spent all of my eight years didn't seem like home. Mother and Father weren't there to hold me and love me and tell me that the monsters would be gone. The monsters had gotten them. I was in my bedroom, seeing Father fall again, the crimson stain spreading across his white shirt. Mother's pearls falling onto the ground as her blouse, too, became blood-stained. The crook ran into the night, and I was left alone to feel a burning pain in my chest and in my eyes.

It was back. But instead of holding the pain in, I let it loose. The pain in my eyes became wetness running down my cheeks, and the pain in my chest became howling sobs. I should have cried for help, I should have done something! But what could I have done, other than die with them? I didn't hear the footsteps or my door creaking open, but I did feel someone sitting down on my bed. "Master Bruce, I'm right here," Alfred said, putting his arm around me. "It's all right to hurt and cry. I shall be here for you."

"Alfred, why couldn't I do anything?" I asked, looking up at him. "I was right there. Why didn't that guy stop?" I hugged him tightly, wishing I could turn back the hands of time.

"Master Bruce, I wish I could say," he answered after a long pause, his dark mustache twitching slightly. I could see that he was hurting just as much as I was. He'd known Father and Mother since before I was born. And he had been like a grandfather to me. "But I will say this; whatever happens, I'm going to be right here. I won't leave you."

"Can you stay with me, Alfred? I'm scared." I hadn't wanted anyone to be in my room with me since I was about six, but tonight the shadows of my room were terrifying. What I knew to be the shadow of my bathrobe looked like the shadow of the figure briefly illuminated by the streetlight. A toy soldier's bayonet had turned into the gun that… I shuddered against Alfred again, wishing to erase the specters from my mind.

"Of course, Master Bruce," he murmured, getting my pajamas. Sometime later, I was in my bed, Alfred next to me in a chair, holding my hand. The monsters had gotten my parents, but tonight Alfred wouldn't let them get me.

B

Some years later, I was in the audience at Haley's Circus for a Wayne Enterprises charity event. No one would suspect that Batman actually likes the circus, but nearly everyone knows that Bruce Wayne loves them. I settled down to watch the show and saw a happy family on the trapeze. John, Mary and Dick Grayson had the excited faces of performers confident in their abilities. I watched as they flew through the air, almost weightless. My joy at their flight become terror and then sorrow when two of the Flying Graysons plummeted to Earth, never to rise again.

Dick was left alone in the world, much as I had been. The difference was that my parents' killer had been an unknown thug. Tony Zucco, however, was a well-known mobster and might come after that little boy. And so Dick Grayson came to live with me. For several nights, I went out without him knowing anything. And then one night, Alfred reminded me that there was a lonely little boy who needed me.

The night he found out that I was the Dark Knight, Dick was happy. But as I put him to bed, his eyes met mine. "Bruce?"

"Yeah, Dick?" I asked. "What's on your mind?"

"Did you ever get scared when you were alone here?" he asked, looking up at the mural of Robin Hood on the wall of my old bedroom. "Did… he ever scare you?"

I stretched out next to him to see as he saw, as I had seen when I was his age. "Sometimes, yeah," I admitted. "I had to lie here to remember how it was. That mural was great when Mother and Father were alive. Father would tell me stories some nights and use the mural as a storyboard. But after they were gone, I had nightmares of Robin Hood..." I swallowed hard. "It wasn't good," I said when I was sure I could control myself. "But then later… I had dreams I was helping him fight off the bad guys." And then I felt the warmth of his hand in mine.

"Can I help you do that when I'm older? I don't think I want to be called Robin Hood, though." I could see him smiling. "How about Robin? Mom called me that."

I deliberated for a long moment. Did I want to let someone fight along with me? Did I want to risk his life as well as my own? I looked over at him, sitting up as I did so. I was prepared to tell him no, but then I saw the look in his eyes. Could I deny him the chance to help prevent other Tony Zuccos from killing people like John and Mary Grayson? Could I deny him the choice to take the path I had? "Dick, are you sure?" I found myself saying. "It's not easy like in the comic books, and you might get hurt. And it's not easy to hold back."

"Hold back?" He sat up too, eyes again meeting mine. I explained what that meant, noting that sometimes it's hard to let the courts do their job. But, I added, there was something far more satisfying in knowing the crook was alive and might live to be remorseful of what he did. Dick nodded. "I understand. We don't want to turn into something bad."

"No we don't, Dick. But if you want to be Robin, I'll train you as best I can. I won't lose you too." To my surprise and joy, he actually hugged me.

And then he looked up at me. "Bruce? Could you stay with me until I fall asleep tonight? I'm scared."

Tonight, I knew that instead of ridding Gotham's streets of criminals, I would rid Dick's mind of monsters. So I nodded, sat by his bed and held his hand. He had no bad dreams that night.

B

This evening, I have heard the words again. But instead of them coming from a helpless child, they came from a young woman who has the power to bend reality to her whims. While she can bend reality, she can't make herself immortal. Ace is dying and she knows it. She told me about her childhood and how she lost it because of Cadmus. We both lost our childhoods, but she could not rebuild her life as I did. She had no chance to have even a semblance of a normal life because she was a meta-human.

Amanda Waller wanted me to use a weapon to kill Ace before the girl's death and psychic backlash could kill thousands. I held the seemingly innocuous cube in my hand, prepared to sacrifice one already dying to save those thousands. But as I ran through her rewritten world to her Wonderland-like playground, I knew I couldn't do it. She wasn't a true villain; she was a little girl who had lost everything and had no one to help her. How could I kill a child who had everything taken from her?

She told me about her loneliness, her grief at being used as a weapon. She told me how she wanted the Royal Flush Gang to play with her when she gave them their powers. But like so many others, they'd abandoned her. I could see the pain in her eyes as she understood that she would never have a chance to play in this world again. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and uttered the words… "Could you stay with me? I'm scared."

We didn't need words. I held out my hand and felt hers through my leather glove. I have watched as the outer world has reverted back to its original state. And now, the swing set has disappeared. She and I are on the ground and I'm holding her as I held Dick a long time ago when nightmares of his parents' deaths plagued him. But unlike Dick, Ace begins to breathe harder. It won't be long now.

The last of her changes to reality are slipping away like a dream when one awakes. And yet the dreamer will not awake when the illusions are gone. Her eyes are closed and I can feel it. Her body nearly shakes in my arms and then… it's over. When I stand, holding her limp body in my arms, I am surprised to see that there's a smile on her face. I helped her over the threshold from this world to the next by staying with her as I stayed with Dick and Alfred stayed with me.

**The End**


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